Letters: Hear other views

Hear other views

Sometimes we become so immersed in our own point of view, we miss what others could contribute to the mix.

The Concerned Citizens of Franklin County want to change that dynamic by sponsoring open forums where people from both sides of an issue can meet to air their thoughts free of any sort of threat. We believe it is important for all sides to learn to speak to each other in an open, free and non-judgmental environment.

For that reason, we will be sponsoring an Open Forum on Aug. 1, from 6 to 9 p.m., near the band shell in Chambersburg's Memorial Park. We are hoping to welcome many opinions on some of the most perplexing issues of our times, not necessarily to change anyone's mind, but just to become informed of what others think.

For more information about this event or to suggest topics to be discussed contact Becky McCarty at mccartyreb@gmail.com or Lynne Newman at 263-2151. please bring your own chairs or blankets.

Please consider this an invitation for anyone interested in opening their minds to others' opinions.

Lynne Newman, Publicity Chairman

Shuster’s record

Congressman Bill Shuster’s recent chest thumping about his “support of Letterkenny Army Depot” is meant to disguise the severe damage he does to our military.

First, Shuster added to his legacy of betraying Republicans by opposing GOP legislation that would have ended the Obama era policy of forcing taxpayers to fund sex-change operations for soldiers and sailors. Republicans were shocked, once again, as Shuster voted with Nancy Pelosi and every Democrat to keep the grotesque social engineering of our military alive.

add insult to injury, Congress also voted to task our military with studying climate change. Again, Nancy Pelosi and liberal Democrats had their way, while Shuster this time was missing in action and a no-show for the vote.

what does Shuster do to disguise his record on military issues and his lack of strategic vision? He trots out the bogeyman of BRAC, of course.

Short for Base Defense Realignment and Closure Commission, BRAC was a post-Cold War system that scaled back our military bases last century.

BRAC isn’t a threat to Letterkenny, it’s a red herring that career politicians like Shuster masterfully invoke to appear to be working. But regardless of BRAC, Letterkenny is at risk to be downsized or shut down because it has remained an Army-only installation. If Shuster understood the modern military business model, he would have helped Letterkenny increase its strategic importance and scope. Joint service activity would strengthen the economic justification for the depot.

Shuster should have been working all these years to relocate a major military command to Letterkenny to keep our vital, award-winning installation thriving for the long term by cementing its role in our national defense arsenal. He should have been working with the highest levels of the military to redirect work, inventory control, resources, and senior command responsibilities to Letterkenny.

By continuously misrepresenting the threat of BRAC, Shuster avoided the real work to secure Letterkenny's future with new industrial jobs and responsibilities that this region so desperately needs. Instead, we have a transgender brigade that will be fighting the weather.

Art Halvorson

Former 9th District congressional candidate

Hungry children

So Mr. MacWilliams is fine with letting hungry children complain to their parents about their hunger. I encourage people to read just a few articles about poverty and the working poor. Learn how truly devastating it is for families, and especially children. Learn how difficult it is to extract oneself from poverty. Here are a few sentences written by Dick Gregory from an essay titled “Shame.”

“The teacher thought I was stupid. Couldn’t spell, couldn’t read, couldn’t do arithmetic. Just stupid. Teachers were never interested in finding out that you couldn’t concentrate because you were hungry, because you hadn’t had breakfast. All you could think about was noontime, would it ever come? Maybe you could sneak into the cloakroom and steal a bite of some kid’s lunch out of his coat pocket. A bite of something. Paste. You really can’t make a meal of paste, or put it on bread for a sandwich, but sometimes I’d scoop a few spoonfuls out of the paste jar in the back of the room. Pregnant people get strange tastes. I was pregnant with poverty. Pregnant with dirt and pregnant with smells that make people turn away, pregnant with cold and pregnant with shoes that were never bought for me, pregnant with five other people in my bed and no Daddy in the next room, and pregnant with hunger. Paste doesn’t taste too bad when you’re hungry.”

I encourage people to read the whole essay. Many more salient points are made concerning what poverty does to a person and how the world sees that person.

I’m sure Mr. MacWilliams was as blessed as me to be born in middle class America. We have never had the misfortune of experiencing anything like this. We’ve never experienced the accident of birth to be born in a truly poor person’s shoes. But for those who are, the struggles to just exist never cease. And although we may know one or two people who were able to extract themselves from the abyss of poverty, that is the exception, and not the rule.